The new version, scheduled for a Christmas release, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan as the lovers separated by a vast gulf of wealth (not to mention marriage vows). The party scenes featured in the trailer bear a close resemblance to the scenes in Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," and that's a good sign, because it contrasts sharply with the lifelessness of the earlier version.

But the adaptation has to be more than quick cuts, loud music and special effects. The movie will rise of fall on Luhrman's ability to bring Fitzgerald's powerful characters to life. Can Mulligan deliver Daisy Buchanan's mix of innocence and cunning? Can DiCaprio be Jay Gatsby -- at once a man who has everything, and yet is driven to distraction and ruin by one woman?